Redding

After we left Hensley Lake we continued north to Roseville, just outside of Sacramento, for no reason in particular except that it happens to be exactly halfway between Hidden View Campground and Redding. This was just an overnight stay and Roseville happens to be the site of the Placer County Fairgrounds. They supposedly have 60 RV sites although not all of them have hookups. They do not take reservations but there were no events scheduled, it was the middle of the week and we are still well ahead of Memorial Day, so we figured there shouldn't be any problem. Of course, we figured wrong. All of the regular camping sites were full when we got there. What they offered us was a place to park in the grass parking lot next to the gate where there was a 30 amp electrical hookup. What the heck, for just one night we took it.

That night we ate at a Peruvian restaurant called La Huaca, which translates as a burial mound or shrine. The interior was decorated with representations of the Nazca Lines, Peru's most recognizable landmarks. I can't recall ever having eaten at a Peruvian restaurant before. Peruvian cuisine is apparently a blend of Inca traditional foods and those brought in by European interlopers and Asian immigrants. The meats were heavily sauced. There was rice and beans but they tasted nothing like what we're used to from Mexican cooking. We had skewered meat appetizers dipped in a mild, sweet chili sauce which were very good. I had a braised lamb shank and Vicki had Chupe de Camarones, a Peruvian version of cioppino. We even splurged and shared a mango flan for dessert. Everything was delicious and we quite enjoyed ourselves. We will have to be on the lookout for Peruvian restaurants in the future.

The Sundial Bridge

The next morning we fired up the diesel and moved on to Redding. We

Dynamic balance

almost always stop here when we come north but just for overnight. This time we scheduled an extra day so we could look around a little bit. We visited the Sundial Bridge which is a foot bridge over the Sacramento
River completed in 2004 and has since become something of an icon for the city. They had to get something for their 24 million bucks. On one end of the bridge is a 217 foot spar which is connected to the bridge via cables. The spar and the bridge are apparently in dynamic balance. The bridge keeps the spar from falling over and the spar prevents the bridge from collapsing into the Sacramento River. The tower is angled due north which causes it to act as a sundial. They have a dial marked out on the ground so you can read the time. It is exactly accurate only on the summer solstice and the shadow only crosses the dial between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm, so don't get rid of your Timex just yet.

Mt. Shasta from Castle Crags viewpoint

The following day we took a scenic drive through the Shasta National Forest. We drove up I-5 across the bridge above Lake Shasta which was down quite a bit from the drought but there were still a few houseboats visible below us. We stopped at Castle Crags State Park and took a short hike up to the viewpoint where you had a good view of the crags in front and Mt. Shasta off to your right. We had talked about doing this many times in the past but never quite got around to it until now. We then got back on the road and drove up to the junction with Hwy. 89.  This took us to the small town of McCloud where we stopped to take a few pictures.  Then it continued down past Mount Lassen to California 299, which in turn carried us back to Redding.  The forests up here are still fairly green and I thought the whole thing was very nice but Vicki started griping toward the end about how long the drive was.  In reality, the whole loop was only about 175 miles, no longer than the distances I had been driving in the motorhome.  Maybe I should let her drive the Monaco and I'll take over driving the Forester.

The Crags reminded us of the Needles in the Black Hills

Mt Shasta from McCloud